1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to media production, and more specifically, to distributing live or live-to-tape media productions over a communications network.
2. Related Art
The broadcast industry has experienced dramatic changes both in technology and business operations. The changes have been manifested in response to regulatory requirements for digital transmissions and competition from both traditional and nontraditional industry sectors. Traditional competitors such as cable coexist with broadcasters due to both mandated and agreed upon xe2x80x9cmust carryxe2x80x9d rules. These rules allow local broadcast stations to access cable networks. Nontraditional transmission media provide another source of stiff competition due to the emergence of digital broadcast satellites (DBS) and Internet Service Providers (ISP).
As more and more households adapt to nontraditional transmissions, the competition for consumer attention will continue to increase. Currently, the unique advantage that broadcasters have is local origination, especially for news. However, competition continues to develop for major network (i.e., ABC(copyright), NBC(copyright) and CBS(copyright) affiliates due to FOX(copyright), UPN(copyright) and other startups for cable services and Internet multicasts (including webcasts). In addition, in the foreseeable future, digital transmission signals may be divided into separate channels for multicasting applications, thereby permitting major networks to step into the local origination market. In addition, newspapers, radio stations and other media hosting entities are competing for awareness and market share on the Internet. Television broadcasters are putting forth an effort to also maintain a local market share on the Internet but have yet to leverage successfully their best asset, i.e. video.
All of these issues present new obstacles that must be overcome by all broadcasters. These issues involve transitioning to digital broadcasts; leveraging automation to resolve the reallocation of resources to generate more content at lower operating expenses; creating an Internet presence to leverage video assets; multicasting to add programming diversity and revenue; using computer networking to adapt streamlined approaches for field acquisition, pre-production, editing, and on-air execution of a show; and maintaining on-air systems through system redundancy.
To increase their presence on the Internet and compete for a larger viewing audience, broadcasters have deployed various business models. Some broadcasters operate their own web sites to service the broadcasters"" audience. However, proper staffing and management is critical to the successful operation of a web site. To effectively manage the web site, a broadcaster typically hires a webmaster, dedicated editorial manager, graphics personnel, journalists, editors, and web advertisement sales personnel. Nonetheless, budgetary constraints and market downturns have a propensity to encourage broadcasters to find creative ways to operate their businesses without increasing labor expenses.
To reduce operating costs, other broadcasters use third parties to manage the web site operations for the broadcaster, or make the content available over the Internet. The third parties may hire a staff of approximately three to four employees to perform web operation duties, such as writing and editing. The third parties may also take on the responsibility for selling advertisements to the local community. Although broadcasters may save labor expenses by hiring a third party, they typically demand a high percentage (e.g., fifty percent) of the revenues generated from the web operations. As a result, many broadcasters are finding the use of third parties not to be as cost effective as originally anticipated. Therefore, there is a trend to move web operations in-house to gain more control and revenue.
In addition to selecting the most cost-effective Internet business model, broadcasters are also challenged to design and provide a web site that is more likely to attract and retain a greater number of visitors. Most visitors browse sites to search for informative and entertaining media. With respect to news sites, most visitors would prefer to be able to pick and choose among a selection of different news stories. However, web sites generally require the visitor to select a news story one-by-one. Thus, the visitor must engage in the tedious and time-consuming process of loading, buffering and viewing each news story one at a time.
Although some conventional web sites may allow a visitor to watch a previously recorded news program, such web sites do not enable the visitor to skip past a news story within the news program. Such web sites also do not allow the visitor to rearrange the order of the presentation. Moreover, such web sites tend not to provide supporting graphics or data that would enable the visitor to find more information about a particular story.
Increasing their Internet audience would enable broadcasters to improve their profit margins by collecting more advertisement revenue. However, Internet sponsors hesitate to sponsor web content without some reasonable assurance that the advertisement will be viewed by a visitor that is likely to purchase the promoted item.
Nonetheless, various pricing schemes can be deployed to sell advertisements. For example, a broadcaster can set prices based on a target audience, media content, time spot, duration of the advertisement, time of transmission, or other over-the-air broadcast criteria. Over-the-air broadcast criteria are typically used to target consumers who are most likely to purchase an advertised item. However, such criteria do not provide any assurance that an advertisement actually will be delivered to the targeted consumers.
Another pricing method would be to sell the advertisement based on client-server metrics, such as hits, downloads, click-throughs, or page views. Client-server metrics can be used to measure the quantity of consumers that actually receive an advertisement, but it is difficult to predict whether the consumer is likely to purchase the advertised item by considering client-server metrics alone.
Therefore, what is needed is a media production and distribution system and method to address the above problems.
The present invention solves the above problems by providing a method, system and computer program product for producing, distributing or tracking media or multimedia (collectively referred to as a xe2x80x9cmedia productionxe2x80x9d) within a worldwide communications network, such as the global Internet. In an embodiment, an enhanced media server transmits the media production over wired or wireless channels to one or more clients (such as, a personal computer, personal digital assistant, enhanced telephone, or personal television). An online user can operate the client to display and interact with the media production. The client includes a graphical user interface (GUI) that permits the user to select various options to customize the transmission or request a standard program. For example, the user has the option of selecting a live or prerecorded news program to be transmitted. The user could also select specific segments from one or more news programs, and arrange the segments to be presented in any order. Moreover, the user can stipulate the duration of the entire transmission, or specify the time to start or stop the transmission. The requested segments can be downloaded, streamed or saved to the client.
The present invention supports the production and distribution of various types of media productions and value added enhancements (collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cenhanced multimediaxe2x80x9d). A media production primarily includes video of news programs, television programming (such as, documentaries, situation comedies, dramas, variety shows, interviews, and the like), sporting events, concerts, infomercials, movies, video rentals, and radio broadcasts. However, the present invention can also be implemented with any other type of audio, video, graphics, text, or other media or multimedia presentation. Notwithstanding the type or form of the media production, the present invention provides methodologies or techniques to link enhancements to the media production. Such enhancements include graphics, extended play segments, polling data, opinion research requests, URLs, articles, documents, court rulings, and other information that enhances the value of the media production displayed on the client device. The enhancements also comprise of advertisements, including video or audio commercials, dynamic banners, sponsorship buttons, active media, and email promotions. Thus, advertisements can be linked to each segment of each standard or customized program so that the user when viewing the transmission also views that associated advertising.
The linked advertisements enable the present invention to be used as a profit generator for various participants involved in producing and distributing the enhanced multimedia. In other words, various pricing models are provided to sell the advertisements that are linked to the enhanced multimedia. In an embodiment, the advertisements are priced and linked by over-the-air broadcast criteria that are used to target consumers most likely to purchase an advertised item. Over-the-air broadcast criteria include target audience, media content, time spot, duration of the advertisement, time of transmission, and the like. In another embodiment, the advertisements are priced by client-server metrics, such as hits, downloads, click-throughs, page views, or other measurements. Client-server metrics are used to measure the quantity of consumers that actually receive an advertisement.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the pricing models are based on a combination of over-the-air broadcast criteria and client-server metrics. These factors are combined to create varying degrees of certainty that a sponsored advertisement actually would be presented, received or viewed by the greatest quantity of users most likely to purchase the advertised item or service.
The degree of certainty is directly proportional to the price of the sponsored advertisement. Therefore, the present invention provides a fair and equitable methodology for pricing an advertisement based on consumer demand and behavioral patterns.
The present invention includes a tracking and reporting system that monitors the distribution of linked advertisements and prepares an invoice based on the selected pricing model. Revenue generated from the selected pricing model is apportioned among the network participants. The network participants include (1) the television stations or other media hosting facilities which create or provide the media production, (2) the operator of the portal hosting the web page that permits the user to request the media production, and (3) other participants in the network.
The present invention supports the integration of media productions from various sources. In an embodiment, a live media production (e.g., news programming) is recorded at a local (or national) station, segmented, categorized, and indexed for easy retrieval and viewing. These operations can be performed automatically using the PVTV Production Automation System (previously referred to as the CameraManSTUDIO(trademark) automation system) available from ParkerVision, Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla. Alternatively, these operations can be performed manually. An index is then established using these categories so that individuals can easily query the index and select the news segments they want to view. Alternatively, the user can set up a template so that a news program is automatically generated based on personal preference. The news program is then compiled, potentially with advertisements, and downloaded to the user""s display device.